Well that is the problem it is locked down to brokers, and has been shown to not be very accurate. There was recently a post about a Bristol, I believe, and the "sale" price was significantly higher. It is in the interest of the brokers to inflate the prices, as higher prices mean higher commissions. NADA and Boat US are at least as accurate as soldboats.com.

Well that is the problem it is locked down to brokers, and has been shown to not be very accurate. There was recently a post about a Bristol, I believe, and the "sale" price was significantly higher. It is in the interest of the brokers to inflate the prices, as higher prices mean higher commissions. NADA and Boat US are at least as accurate as soldboats.com.

How has it been shown not to be very accurate?

It does happen that brokers enters incorrect sale prices, for a variety of reasons. One reason can be that a seller does not want anyone (friends, etc) to know exactly what his boat sold for and may request that broker input sale price = asking price.

If sale price differs dramatically from asking price, brokers may and often do enter a comment that explains why.

If a broker consistently inflate sale prices in soldboats.com I think he can/may be reported to yachtworld.com (same as soldboats.com) and worst case scenario I think his priviliges to use soldboats may be revoked. not sure how often that happens in reality.

I do know that YBBA is trying to somewhat enforce accurate reporting as well.

It is in everyones interest.

For the most part, I have found the sale prices in soldboats.com accurate.

and... a reported sale price in soldboats.com does not influence a brokers commission in any way, the actual sale price determines the commission (unless it is fixed, which is somewhat unusual).

Can't you just go to Walmart and pick one off the shelf? I mean if it's good it would have been reviewed on Amazon. Also Consumer Reports would have info as well. Didn't Ralph Nader do a 60 minutes special on boat values?

Can't you just go to Walmart and pick one off the shelf? I mean if it's good it would have been reviewed on Amazon. Also Consumer Reports would have info as well. Didn't Ralph Nader do a 60 minutes special on boat values?

Artificially inflated prices mean lower volume, which means lower commissions. A broker gets no commission until a boat sells, and it will just sit on the market if priced too high.

According to what I've been told, the average boat sits on the market about a year before it's sold. That's a long time to wait for a commission, especially if you're just getting into the business.

Based on soldboats information we got on the Sabre 38 & Tartan 37, the longer a boat was on the market, the larger the gap between asking price and selling price. (I don't know if the asking price from soldboats is the original or just the last asking price before the boat was sold.)

The soldboats information certainly showed that pricing a boat properly will get it sold faster. And you would think that would compel brokers to do whatever they can to get the seller to agree to a listing price that will be in line with boats that sold quickly. But we saw many boats that were on the market a year or more where the original listing price hadn't budged.

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